COVID-19 and Brain Health: Global Council on Brain Health Recommendations

Abstract With growing evidence that the coronavirus directly harms the brain and indirectly harms mental well-being due to social isolation and new, increased stressors, the GCBH recognized the urgent need to inform adults age 50+ about ways to their protect brain health as the pandemic continues. In our latest report, the GCBH describes the known neurological symptoms occurring in the short and long term for adults, providing 10 recommendations to protect brain health and urging research in 11 different areas. Calling for an all-of-society approach to protect the brain health of everyone, the GCBH described the negative effects of COVID-19 on people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and to the impact of health care inequalities. For example, people with dementia were twice as likely to catch the virus as those without dementia; African Americans with dementia had nearly three times the risk of COVID-19 as Caucasians with dementia. The GCBH also points out that caregivers for those living with dementia have experienced particular stress and provided resources and guidance. The Council spotlights the disproportionate toll of COVID-19 on the vulnerable, including racial and ethnic minorities and those living in low- to middle-income countries. After attending this session, participants will be able to identify the neurological impacts of COVID-19, understand the various ways to mitigate risks to brain health, and learn which areas of research will be critical in the future. These recommendations were developed and put forth by the Global Council on Brain Health Governance Committee and Issue Experts.

reporting has led to quality improvements in non-VA nursing homes, we do not know whether CLCs respond to public reporting differently than private sector nursing homes. To address this knowledge gap, we used a comparative case study approach involving 3 purposively selected CLCs with varied (low, medium, high) performance ratings. We conducted semi-structured interviews with personnel (n=12) responsible for quality measurement and improvement. Interviews focused on opinions of public reporting, actions taken to improve performance ratings, and motivations for change. Participants indicated public reporting improved transparency and provided an "outside perspective" on their performance. Strategies to improve performance ratings involved 1) data/information, 2) individual roles, and 3) teamwork/ communication. All 3 CLCs made changes in these areas, yet respondents in the higher performing CLCs described implementing more strategies immediately after learning their ratings. Respondents in all 3 CLCs described being motivated to deliver good care and achieve public ratings that reflected the care they provided. This meant addressing internal weaknesses that contributed to lower scores for 2 CLCs. Our findings suggest public reporting may improve internal data collection, reporting, and quality improvement efforts in CLCs. They highlight the potential positive impact of public reporting in prompting quality improvement in nursing homes.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND COVID-19
COVID-19 AND BRAIN HEALTH: GLOBAL COUNCIL ON BRAIN HEALTH RECOMMENDATIONS Sarah Lock, and Lindsay Chura, AARP, Washington,

District of Columbia, United States
With growing evidence that the coronavirus directly harms the brain and indirectly harms mental well-being due to social isolation and new, increased stressors, the GCBH recognized the urgent need to inform adults age 50+ about ways to their protect brain health as the pandemic continues. In our latest report, the GCBH describes the known neurological symptoms occurring in the short and long term for adults, providing 10 recommendations to protect brain health and urging research in 11 different areas. Calling for an allof-society approach to protect the brain health of everyone, the GCBH described the negative effects of COVID-19 on people living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias and to the impact of health care inequalities. For example, people with dementia were twice as likely to catch the virus as those without dementia; African Americans with dementia had nearly three times the risk of COVID-19 as Caucasians with dementia. The GCBH also points out that caregivers for those living with dementia have experienced particular stress and provided resources and guidance. The Council spotlights the disproportionate toll of COVID-19 on the vulnerable, including racial and ethnic minorities and those living in low-to middle-income countries. After attending this session, participants will be able to identify the neurological impacts of COVID-19, understand the various ways to mitigate risks to brain health, and learn which areas of research will be critical in the future. These recommendations were developed and put forth by the Global Council on Brain Health Governance Committee and Issue Experts. As many other countries Sweden has been hit hard by the Corona pandemic, with high numbers of dead in the older population. Since march 16, 2020, the authorities have encouraged people 70+ to voluntarily quarantine and avoid contacts outside the household. How has this affected older people's everyday lives? This study reports on results from a web-survey on the everyday life experiences of Swedes 70+ carried out between May 28 and July 13, 2020 (n=1 926). The presentation focuses answers to an open-ended question: "Describe with your own words how your life has been affected by the Corona pandemic". A qualitative content analysis was used to investigate changes in the everyday lives of the respondents and their appreciations of these changes. Results show that older Swedes have mostly adhered to public recommendations of self-isolation and withdrawn from social and family contacts, as well as paid and volunteer work. The vast majority (76%) of the respondents describe what they see as negative life changes, such as loss of structure in their everyday life, loss of contact with children/grandchildren and friends, loss of meaningful activities, loss of abilities due to forced unemployment and experiences of ageism. Experiences of loneliness, depression and drop in quality of life are common. Some positive changes were reported. We argue that the experience of the 70+ population during Corona needs to be understood in relation to the promise of the third age, where everyday restrictions are experienced as a forced disengagement into a fourth age life style.

INFORMATION SEEKING DURING THE PANDEMIC: THE ROLE OF AGE, AGENCY, AND FAKE NEWS CONCERNS
Ann Pearman, MacKenzie Hughes, and Clara Coblenz, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, United States COVID-19 brought rapid changes to the way in which people understand and process news, including both information and misinformation about the pandemic. This cross-sectional study was designed to examine persons' experiences during the earliest months of the pandemic. The sample included 871 adults ages 20-79 (M=38.27 years, SD=11.40). Online surveys were collected between March and May, 2020 using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants completed a series of questionnaires, including a measure of agency from the Midlife Development Inventory, a questionnaire that assessed level of skepticism about the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. fake news beliefs), a depression scale, a question about their level of anxiety about developing COVID-19, and questions about the frequency in which they sought information about the pandemic from different sources (e.g., TV, social media). A multiple regression using information seeking frequency as the outcome variable revealed several significant relationships. Specifically, younger adults, people with higher agency, and people with higher fake news beliefs all reported higher levels of COVID-19-related information seeking. In addition, there was a significant 3-way interaction between age, agency, and fake news beliefs. Disentangling this interaction revealed that older adults with low agency were least likely to engage in information seeking. There were, however, no age differences in information seeking in participants with high agency and fake news beliefs, but large age differences in participants with low agency but high fake news beliefs. Findings suggest agency is an important predictor of information seeking behavior, particularly for older adults with high levels of skepticism about the pandemic.

MOVING ONLINE: EVIDENCE-BASED PROGRAMMING DURING COVID
Susan Hughes, 1 Andrew DeMott, 2 Gerald Stapleton, 1 and Gail Huber, 3 1. University of Illinois at Chicago,Chicago,Illinois,United States,2. UIC,Chicago,Illinois,United States,3. Northwestern University,Chicago,Illinois,United States The COVID pandemic disrupted the way evidence-based health promotion programs (EBPs) are delivered to older adults who were the most at-risk group in terms of mortality and faced unprecedented threats to their independence and physical and mental health. Many organizations stopped in-person EBPS causing older adults to lose access to key social networks and health resources. It is a top public health priority to find new ways to keep older adults connected to their EBPs. Fit & Strong! (F&S!) is a group exercise/health education EBP for older adults with arthritis offered by CBOs in 32 states. CBOs stopped offering F&S! in-person in March 2020. Since the lockdown, we have worked closely with our provider network to develop and pilot a version that is remote/online and live, titled "F&S! @Home". Instructors deliver F&S! @Home to older adults with minimal technological resources. We created a staging website for both providers/instructors and participants that is used to initiate the classes, enable providers to manage participants, collect data, and share support materials. The pilot began September 2020; since that time 15 classes have been offered to 147 participants. Administration on Community Living falls and arthritis outcomes data are being collected. Preliminary analyses of 45 participants and 8 instructors demonstrate a high rating of the program (mean score of 90.2 out of 100) with no adverse outcomes to date. This presentation will review the process of creating the online adaptation, lessons learned, and will review pre/post outcomes and participant and instructor evaluation feedback.